Free Pussy Riot! at Russian Embassy

In February, the feminist punk band Pussy Riot stormed into Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and to perform their anti Putin song “Punk prayer”. Ekaterina Samusevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, alleged members of Pussy Riot, were arrested in March, and are charged with “Hooliganism”. They face up to 7 years in jail. Amnesty International has called for their immediate and unconditional release, and said the excessive penalty they are facing makes them prisoners of conscience.

At a trial last Thursday they were remanded for another 2 months in jail, although two of the defendants have young children.

On Monday, 23 April, about 100 people, many of whom wearing neon balaclavas, the trade mark of Pussy Riot, protested outside the Russian Embassy in London, demanding “Free Pussy Riot!”.

Update: Video of the performance that has three young women imprisoned:

Round up 2: Reel New in Athens

Since the last update, we have visited the occupied TV channel Alter TV, the journalists of the newspaper Eleftherotypia, who have been on strike since December and the pickets at the steel factory Elliniki Halivourgia, with workers out on strike for four months now.

We have met actors from a radical theater company performing in squatted venues, an experimental post-punk act, and a dubstep artist.

Photo by Guy Smallman

We covered a demo and rally of hospital workers out on strike (slideshow and video rushes), and activists from Al.Any.A. (roughly translated the acronym means “little rascals” – the full name is Solidarity, Disobedience, Resistance), who blocked the toll collection on the motor way leaving Athens – eliciting huge smiles from drivers, blowing their horns in support of the action.

Today we spoke to young immigrants about the issues they face, and went down to the students parades that take place on the day before the Independence Day Parades, which is where we will go tomorrow.

Issue 28, June 2011

TUC demo March 26 (Reel News) 10:46 The second largest demonstration in British history as the anti-cuts campaign begins in earnest. ***PLAY***
Tower Hamlets joint strike action (Reel News) 11:30 Teachers and council workers coordinate strike action against the cuts. ***PLAY***
EMERGENCY! The battle to save the NHS (Reel News) 26:07 The government is trying to privatise the NHS, but the resistance is growing. Everything you need to know about Lansley’s bill, NHS cuts and how to fight back. ***PLAY***
Royal Cleaners fight for a living wage (Reel News) 11:18 While millions are spent on the Royal wedding, the cleaners in Buckingham Palace have to make do with poverty pay.
London Met fighting for education (Reel News) 15:57 70% of courses and hundreds of jobs are being cut as London Metropolitan University becomes a testing ground for the Tories’ education policies.
The Hardest Hit march (Reel News) 9:00 The biggest march of disabled people in history against cuts in welfare.
Rubbish Action (Issy Harvey) 1:30 There’s not enough workers to pick up the litter in Haringey parks, so campaigners dump it on the civic centre steps.
Guilty and Proud of it! Poplar’s rebel councillors (Janine Booth / Reel News) 16:16 From 1919 -1925, Labour councillors in Poplar went to jail for defending their working class communities – and won. A key episode of our history. ***PLAY***
Alabama 3 – Bad to the Bone (Reel News) 3:28 Recorded live in Manchester on last year’s Revolver Soul tour.